Poor Robert Serry, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. His usual job is to focus on Israel-bashing and the Syrian crisis is getting in the way. Nevertheless, the UN official did his best to refocus the attention of the Security Council on his blame-Israel priorities. Analogizing mass murder in Syria to the plight of Palestinians, Serry said: "the coming weeks would be critical on two major diplomatic fronts - negotiations to halt the increasingly bloody crisis in Syria, and ending the long-standing Israeli-Palestinian conflict." In his briefing, Serry started with Israel and spent twice as long speaking about Israel than Syria. As the UN has pitched for decades, giving Arabs what they want immediately is now "critical;" the parties "cannot afford to lose" the moment. He proceeded to praise the Palestinians for having "shown countenance in diplomatic fora" - (how soon unilateral declarations of statehood are forgotten) - and to announce that the only "exception" he could see to the parties exercising laudable "restraint" was Israel's building of apartments. He referred to the Israeli father of five recently murdered by a Palestinian as a "settler" - a nomenclature specifically designed to downplay the attack - and then he made the de rigeur exculpatory reference to "settler violence."
